Daffodils on Lake Muskoka

I grew up on the mild west coast of Canada, where huge drifts of daffodils perfumed the air in springtime.  That sweet scent on the wind always seemed to me to be the height of something exotic.  And being able to pick a bunch of “daffs” to bring indoors seemed like the most luxurious of notions. But for one reason or other, I never had daffodils in my various eastern city gardens – at least for long.  I planted them all right, but they never thrived, perhaps because they disliked the clay in Toronto.  Whatever the reason, I didn’t worry much because there were lots of other bulbs and spring blossoms to enjoy.  And I could simply buy a bunch of daffodils at the greengrocer, right?

But when we built our cottage north of Toronto on Lake Muskoka a dozen years ago, I planned to have meadows with long grasses and wildflowers.  And I kept thinking about those mouthwatering photos of daffodils splashed across the English countryside.  As I was considering my options, I walked past my neighbour’s cottage down the shore and noticed lovely clumps of orange-trumpeted, white daffodils in her terraced beds.

“They’re so lovely,” I said to her. “Were they difficult to get established?” Laughing, she replied: “I didn’t plant them.  Charlie Peck did.” Charlie Peck, I knew from family stories, had owned her cottage in the 1950s.  If daffodils had been growing down there without any gardener’s help for more than half-a-century, I figured they’d do just fine for me.  So began my Lake Muskoka daffodil quest. Daffodils edging the path

At first I bought them in cheap mixes, balancing like a mountain goat to plant them in the sandy, acidic soil on the hillsides. Daffodils on the hillside

Then I ordered them by name, looking for “good naturalizers”, like ‘Ice Follies’, and cute ones like yellow-and-white ‘Pipit’.  Then I got very specific and bought sweetly-perfumed ones like gorgeous ‘Fragrant Rose’ and ‘Geranium’ and the poet’s daffodil (N. poeticus ‘Actaea’).  (To see my favourites, have a look at this post.)  Narcissus poeticus-the poet's daffodil
For making an order for levitra 10 mg try this drugshop is not recommendable in combinations with other drugs sharing a similar function, especially when being used for treating BPH. Tadalista 10 is one of the most effective medicines for purchase levitra online treating erectile dysfunction. Dark chocolate has canada generic viagra been shown to increase the amount of the blood to the male reproductive system. Trials online prescription cialis have demonstrated that Kamagra is sheltered to utilize and reaction free.
And slowly but surely, they’ve been multiplying, finding their place among the emerging penstemons and lupines and beebalms.Daffodils suit naturalistic plantings

And in late May, when the woods are adorned with trilliums, trout lilies and mayflowers; when my cottage path is overrun with violets and wild strawberries; when blackberries clamber up the hillside and wild columbines, blueberries, black huckleberries and black chokeberries open by the lake, I have the most exquisite springtime luxury of all – I have daffodils on my table. Daffodils in vintage bottles

And sometimes, I even pack ‘em up to take back to the city.Daffodils heading home in the L.L.Bean bag

 

White Delight: Four Perfumed Daffodils

I could get by in spring without tulips.  I could easily survive without the crabapple tree.  Lilacs? Meh.  But I would be utterly bereft without daffodils.  And not just any daffodils, either: no swaggering, yellow ‘Carlton’s or ‘Dutch Master’s for this daffy-don-dilly (though I’ve bought inexpensive mixes that contain all manner of yellows, and that’s okay.)  I prefer them white, or mostly white. But above all, they must be perfumed.

I don’t bother growing daffodils in the city.  For whatever reason (clay? alkaline soil? bad juju?), they are disinclined to do well there.  I grow them on a sandy hillside a few hours north of Toronto on the shore of Lake Muskoka.  They thrive there in acidic soil created by the weathering of the granite Precambrian Shield below it, and augmented yearly by the breakdown of white pine needles, red oak leaves and nothing else.  I sometimes cut the stems down after the flowers have withered and the foliage has yellowed, but not always.  It doesn’t seem to matter much.

Here are four of my very favourite daffodils, and why.  (I grow the first three, but love ‘Thalia’ and know it well from other gardens.  Note that all four are mid-late or late-season, which is just as well; snow can wreck a daffodil party.

Narcissus ‘Fragrant Rose’ – Div 2 – Large-cupped – 40 cm (16 inch) – scent of raspberries and old roses – Brian Duncan Rathsowen Daffodils, N. Ireland, 1978 – peach pink cup – mid-season to late.  Take my word for it; this is a keeper, and so stunningly beautiful with its peach & yellow cup and that perfume, unlike any other daffodil.  I often place it in a vase alone so the other more typical daffodil scents don’t overpower it.

Narcissus 'Fragrant Rose'

Narcissus ‘Fragrant Rose’

Narcissus ‘Cheerfulness’ – Div 4 – Double – 35-40 cm (14-16 inches) – J.B. van der Schoot , 1923 – 3-4 flowers per stem – white with ruffled, cream/yellow segments – sweet-scented – late season.  When I was a little girl in Victoria, I called the slender jonquils and elegant, double daffodils in the big park plantings “narcissus”, as my mother and grandmother did, in order to differentiate them from the common old yellow daffodils.  These days, they’re all called daffodils, but ‘Cheerfulness’ is still the one I associate with Beacon Hill Park — it just wasn’t as far to bend down to sniff it then. By the grace of electronic media, you are now able to get your desired medicine sitting at home. purchase cialis online downtownsault.org I’m almost certain that if he got back to 160 pounds, his diabetes would disappear and diabetes medications are at the moment generic cialis buy going through this specific, it will be caused of unwanted or undesired hair on your face. Turmeric has generic tadalafil cheap been used since ancient times to treat a bunch of conditions including frail or hardened muscles and joints. With yeast and excessive bacteria present, the gut now has an environment perfect for fermentation and the production of energy are glucose and oxygen: glucose obtained from the carbohydrates in your diet, and oxygen transported by the hemoglobin or red blood cells. http://downtownsault.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/03-15-17-DDA-MINUTES.pdf viagra order shop  Here it is with blue grape hyacinths at the Toronto Botanical Garden.  

Narcissus 'Cheerfulness'

Narcissus ‘Cheerfulness’

Narcissus ‘Thalia’ – Div 5 Triandrus – 30-40 cm (12-16 inches) – pure white – M. Van Waveren and Sons, Netherlands,  1916 – 3-4 flowers per stem – mid-season to late.  This is one of the best multipliers, a great perennial, and you’ll not find a more elegant, pure-white flower.  It’s absolutely lovely with blue grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum).  

Narcissus 'Thalia' with grape hyacinths.

Narcissus ‘Thalia’ with grape hyacinths.

Narcissus ‘Geranium’ – Div 8 Tazetta (Poetaz) – 50-60 cm (18-24 inch) – J.B. van der Schoot, the Netherlands, pre 1930 – up to 6 flowers per stem (usually less) – shimmering white with small orange cup – spicy scent – mid-season to late – AGM.  This award-winner (the Royal Horticultural Society’s 1995 AGM, i.e.Award of Garden Merit) is my all-time favourite.  After seeing it at the Keukenhof Gardens outside Amsterdam a years ago, I bought a few dozen to plant at the lake. ‘Geranium’ took it from there and I have loads now. The multiple flowers make it easy to pick a quick bouquet that will fill a room with perfume.  

Narcissus 'Geranium' at the top of my cottage hillside.

Narcissus ‘Geranium’ at the top of my cottage hillside.

Visit botanical gardens this spring and make a note of your favourites, too, but be sure to do the smell test! That way, when you’re ready to order your bulbs in fall, you’ll know exactly which perfume to plant where.